They've got eight years worth of games, some of them megahits. To their credit, they have given us Fable III, Assassin's Creed 2, Dead Rising 2 and Halo 3 (all of which I already owned the DD of except DR2). The best of everything 2 y/o or older should be being offered up. Sure, throw out an arcade game now and then but every month should feature a popular major release title. They're only made available for a couple of weeks.

have to agree. So far this is crap compared to PS+. I mean, I'm getting Resogun free day 1. For 360 there are literally dozens of great full titles that are in the bargain bin they could easily be giving out.

Okay someone explain to me why people keep saying this is competing against PS+ at the tail end of a generation that none of these games move forward to the new systems? People buy Gold to play online. This was never started to get more members to get Live. It s free games for appreciation for being a member. Not sure why the continous comparison to a program that has been around for 2 years and the whole point of the program is to generate money for Sony. Especially now that online on the PS4 is behind the paywall. If Kameo comes it comes and if it don't does it really matter?

And MS is giving us Games with Gold out of the goodness of their hearts? It's obviously a "me-too" line item which begs to be compared with PS+ "free" games. (Kameo is just an example of an oldie-but-goody that would be perfect; it's an MS Studios release and giving it away wouldn't lose much in sales).

I wouldn't call it a "laughing stock"--they've given out some good stuff. They're just not being very consistent.

Because they're now essentially equivalent services going forward. One consistently over-delivers, the other is a laughing stock.

Why is Games with Gold a laughing stock? It boils down to what you view as a value I guess. While PS+ has had the better freebies it's also playing catch up in the popularity dept. with Live and I think as we go on should PS+ prove wildly popular you'll see MS be more consistent with their releases. It'll be a balancing effort and while I hope it doesn't happen I could easily see Sony being less giving with their freebies should they see the kind of traction Live has had over the years.

I'm not comparing the overall services, just the free games part. The difference in quality and quantity between them is so plainly obvious that it doesn't need explanation.

Well the point is that you can focus on that particular part of the service when you take the whole into account. If the roles were reversed and we're all on PSN as a paid service and it's MS trying to play catch up do you really think Sony would be giving us the deals they're giving us? Sony is playing catch up and they have a good thing going. I hope they keep it up because it means MS will eventually have to relent and start offering better free game or disount perks with Live. So far though for the freebies being only a few months old we have had some good games given away. It's not like it's been all crap just that it could definitely improve.

Well the point is that you can focus on that particular part of the service when you take the whole into account. If the roles were reversed and we're all on PSN as a paid service and it's MS trying to play catch up do you really think Sony would be giving us the deals they're giving us? Sony is playing catch up and they have a good thing going. I hope they keep it up because it means MS will eventually have to relent and start offering better free game or disount perks with Live. So far though for the freebies being only a few months old we have had some good games given away. It's not like it's been all crap just that it could definitely improve.

I agree 100%. It just strikes me as a really lame way to check off a box on a list of features without actually competing. It's not like there's some technical issue preventing them from giving more or better/newer games....they can step up their offerings on a moments notice, they're just choosing not to.

The difference is that the IGC on plus is a huge selling point. GWG is just a meh little bonus. Seriously, if I believed that GWG would become as valuable as IGC, I'd buy an X1 for it alone.

Yeah hopefully Sony will be so successful with PS+ that it will force MS to take it more seriously. Right now just two free games a month isn't enough when you consider everything + gets you. Still though they have to start somewhere so hopefully they have bigger plans. It'd be just like MS to half ass it as long as they can with no real explanation. Better late than never though I guess.

Yeah hopefully Sony will be so successful with PS+ that it will force MS to take it more seriously. Right now just two free games a month isn't enough when you consider everything + gets you. Still though they have to start somewhere so hopefully they have bigger plans. It'd be just like MS to half ass it as long as they can with no real explanation. Better late than never though I guess.

Yeah, it does give me a little shred of hope for the future. I can see free games simply becoming part of what people expect to get with both memberships.

That World of Kerfuffle is less than 400 megs. Does it continue to download more stuff while you play? Game looks like an old first gen iphone game. I noticed there is also a free poker game available for download at around 1 Gig. Ah the perks of having a Gold account.
Gamestop will give me 60 bucks for my xbox 360. I could use that money for something more 2013.

This month's 360 Games with Gold are Gears of War and an arcade game called Shoot Many Robots. Gears isn't a bad freebie, despite being 7 years old (hope for Kameo yet lives ); I may grab it just to have the DD available should I choose to play through it again. Nothing for Xbox One as yet.

This month's 360 Games with Gold are Gears of War and an arcade game called Shoot Many Robots. Gears isn't a bad freebie, despite being 7 years old (hope for Kameo yet lives ); I may grab it just to have the DD available should I choose to play through it again. Nothing for Xbox One as yet.

Lol gears of war 1. That's almost more laughable than kameo.

I swear they're intentionally keeping the joke running. They have to be.

The original Gears was a very good game. What's so great about what Sony's been offering lately? Except for Resogun for the PS4 there hasn't been anything interesting. (I don't have a PS4 and wouldn't be interested in Resogun if I did).

The original Gears was a very good game. What's so great about what Sony's been offering lately? Except for Resogun for the PS4 there hasn't been anything interesting. (I don't have a PS4 and wouldn't be interested in Resogun if I did).

Don't get me wrong its a great game, but who hasn't played it by now? As long as their primary offering is popular games from 5+ yearss ago, GwG has basically zero value to anyone who keeps up with gaming. I'd rather get lesser known contemporary games.

While we are arguing PSN+ vs GWG, the PSN network is down again due to the European launch. This is why Xbox live will always be superior in my book to PSN+. The xbox live network is very solid and it barely has the issue I have encounter with PSN so far. The biggest difference here is that PSN+ free games are only yours until you keep your subscription while GWG are free forever. Big difference if you ask me. I do agree thought, Resogun is a pretty darn good game and for this month, PSN+ wins in terms of game giving for free.

The original Gears was a very good game. What's so great about what Sony's been offering lately? Except for Resogun for the PS4 there hasn't been anything interesting. (I don't have a PS4 and wouldn't be interested in Resogun if I did).

I'll give Sony credit for at least offering more recent games as part of their program. Titles like Hitman: Absolution, Kingdoms of Amalur, Dragon's Dogma and the remastered versions of Ico and Shadow of Colossus are all less than three years old. The offerings on 360 consist mainly of games that have probably played out to their intended audiences years ago or obscure XBLA games in very niche genres. I own all four consoles: PS3/360/PS4/Xbox One so I don't have a horse in this race but in terms of bang for the buck when it comes to game downloads, I've gotten a lot more use of PS+ than Games with Gold.

Weird question: If I delete a "Games With Gold" game that I got for free, for example: Fable 3, in order to make space for other things (Yup, 20 GB model here), can I download that same game later on, when it's not being offered?

In other words, does downloading a "Games With Gold" game count as making a purchase? Anybody know?

Weird question: If I delete a "Games With Gold" game that I got for free, for example: Fable 3, in order to make space for other things (Yup, 20 GB model here), can I download that same game later on, when it's not being offered?

In other words, does downloading a "Games With Gold" game count as making a purchase? Anybody know?

Yes--the game belongs to you and will be in your Download History (they have made it very difficult to find that page ); from there you can click the "Add to queue" for any title.

Have there ever been any Games on Demand titles which have stopped being offered? I've bought video titles which stopped being available to buy but I was able to download my owned copy.

Already own Lara Croft & Guardian of Light, bought it when it first came out - its a great game, especially when played co-op with a friend.

yeah, after they closed the loophole in the Lara Croft game with an update (a major loophole where I owned the game and could invite a friend who didn't own it to play it with me), I was stuck halfway through the co-op campaign. Now, I can play with any of my friends.

Weird question: If I delete a "Games With Gold" game that I got for free, for example: Fable 3, in order to make space for other things (Yup, 20 GB model here), can I download that same game later on, when it's not being offered?

In other words, does downloading a "Games With Gold" game count as making a purchase? Anybody know?

yes, once it's in your download history, you can download it even if it gets removed from the marketplace. Now, I know they can permanently remove some items like movie promotion things, themes, etc. So for those, once you delete them, you're unable to get them again. But I've always been able to download games even if they're removed from the marketplace. Games like the Atari/Midway games like Joust I can download at any time if I erase them. the Games with Gold doesn't have any special distinction. you're just buying it for free.

In fact, most of the Games with Gold games, I haven't actually downloaded them (due to lack of HDD space). But they're in my download history for the future. In fact, I started to download Gears of War but ended up canceling again and erasing the partial download.